{"id":654623,"date":"2019-09-19T18:29:18","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T23:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/?p=654623"},"modified":"2020-08-25T11:15:17","modified_gmt":"2020-08-25T16:15:17","slug":"the-good-the-bad-and-the-puzzling-in-child-maltreatment-counts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/2019\/09\/19\/the-good-the-bad-and-the-puzzling-in-child-maltreatment-counts\/","title":{"rendered":"The Good, the Bad and the Puzzling in Child Abuse and Neglect Counts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Each year, the Oklahoma agency that tracks and\ninvestigates abuse and\nneglect of children issues a detailed statistical report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buried in all of the numbers is what appears to be a hopeful trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the past six years, the number of child abuse cases \u2013 the most severe\nform of child maltreatment \u2013 has plummeted by more than 50 percent, to 1,407\nlast year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, another measure of how Oklahoma treats its children has risen to alarming levels. During the same period, the number of substantiated cases of child neglect has tripled, to 13,394. That drove an overall 18% increase in the number of cases of abuse, neglect or both since fiscal year 2012, a data analysis by Oklahoma Watch found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But why would neglect soar and abuse plummet?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human\nServices Department officials say they don\u2019t know why, except mainly to suggest\nthat when it comes to child neglect, citizens and professionals who deal with\nchildren have become better educated about recognizing the problem, which is\ndefined more broadly than abuse, and are more inclined to report suspected cases.<\/p>\n\n\n

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